John A. Dodson is a cardiologist.

How minimizing treatment burden can help patients with chronic conditions

Physician
January 23, 2023

An older patient recently told me that she spent 80 days over the past year in a doctor’s office. This represented over 20 percent of her life. She was relatively well but had several chronic medical conditions that required frequent office visits. In addition to these visits, she navigated scheduling, prescriptions, laboratory testing, and copayments.

Her experience is not unusual. For example, among patients with diabetes (a common chronic medical condition), …

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How minimizing treatment burden can help patients with chronic conditions

Letting go when people let go of their lives

Physician
November 5, 2019

My 83-year-old patient had outlived peoples’ expectations on several occasions. Faced with a critical illness three years ago, she underwent emergency surgery and spent several months in the hospital with a series of complications, including septic shock, renal failure, and hospital-acquired pneumonia.

I’d seen her in the office for a new visit soon after she was discharged. It took nearly 20 minutes to go through her history before walking into the …

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Letting go when people let go of their lives

Older adults and the epidemic of loneliness

Conditions
May 25, 2019

A recent New York Times article described a 77-year-old retired gardener in England who had not spoken with another human being in more than six weeks. He told the reporter through tears that he felt “very lonely, and bored.” Recent budget cuts prevented him from taking the bus to the grocery store. Younger people, including his own son, had left town for better jobs in larger cities.

I see this loneliness …

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Older adults and the epidemic of loneliness

Conversation with older patients is common sense

Physician
January 4, 2019

My 81-year-old patient came in several weeks ago and disclosed that he had stopped taking his aspirin after watching a news report on television. “They said I didn’t need it anymore,” he told me. I gently informed him that this news didn’t apply to him.

He was responding to a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine, which showed that aspirin failed to prevent …

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Conversation with older patients is common sense